Website Guidelines

The intended audience of a message may determine the appropriate placement of that message. Greenville Technical College has two distinct web communication points – the website (primarily for marketing the college to external audiences) and the portal, GTC4me (for communications that are specific to employees and current students).  Information that is exclusively for faculty and staff (such as benefits information) or exclusively for current students (such as syllabi) would not be of general interest to external audiences and should not be included on the gvltec.edu website.

No faculty or staff member at the college is permitted to create a web presence that represents Greenville Technical College outside the college's website without the specific permission of Marketing and Communications. Requests for the use of social media (blogs, Facebook, etc.) that represent the college should be directed to Marketing and Communications for approval and assistance.

Greenville Technical College web page: any digital page created or maintained by or on behalf of Greenville Technical College or an office, department or division of Greenville Technical College and located and maintained within Greenville Technical College's information technology environment; i.e., signified by the address "www.gvltec.edu" or within the range of Internet protocol addresses assigned to Greenville Technical College.

Content: the words, and sometimes visual elements, contained within the structure of a web page and usually different on each page.

Static Areas: the part of the web page that is predetermined by the design of the website, for example, the major navigation that appears on each page.

Hyperlink: A logo, text or other identifier incorporating a link to another web page, which may be within the Greenville Technical College site or to a website external to Greenville Technical College, placed on a Greenville Technical College web page without compensation.

Digital ad: A digital advertisement placed on a website, above, below or to the side of the site's main content area.

As part of its mission to give visitors to Greenville Technical College's website an accurate and positive representation of students, alumni, faculty and staff, Marketing and Communications and OIT support and share responsibility with CMS content editors.

Responsibilities of Marketing and Communications

1. Work with internal clients to organize web content and structure.
2. Create new pages for content.
3. Monitor the college’s site for errors and opportunities for improvement.
4. Monitor the college’s site for any misuse of Greenville Technical College logos and trademarks or violations of visual guidelines.
5. Monitor the college’s site for any misuse or violations of website guidelines, making changes as needed to correct compliance.
6. Assist with Section 508 accessibility compliance.
7. Provide Cascade CMS training.

Responsibilities of OIT

1. Create Cascade CMS user accounts and grant appropriate site access.
2. Resolve post-training issues regarding Cascade CMS.
3. Work to resolve any server issues.

Marketing and Communications and OIT are best able to assist clients who work within the Website Guidelines.

Responsibilities of the Editors and Approvers

While there is certainly overlap in the responsibilities of editors and approvers, editors generally are responsible for initiating content changes to ensure that web information is up to date. Approvers have the role of determining if web information is accurate.

Editors and approvers should strive to make their content as accurate as possible and should verify that web content changes are always made in a timely manner to maintain an up-to-date and accurate website.

Both editors and approvers should also maintain the highest editorial standards, including proper spelling, grammar and sentence structure.

For detailed information about the roles of the editor and the approver, refer to your CMS training materials.

All pages must be in compliance with the appropriate college policies, including the Website Guidelines, Marketing Writing Style Guide and the Visual Identity Guidelines, as well as applicable local, state and federal laws. The state of South Carolina is engaged in making state government information on the web accessible to those with functional impairments in accordance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998.

Generally, there are three areas of creative input within individual web pages:

1. Copy - the words on the pages that describe programs, departments, etc.
2. Visuals - photographs, diagrams, other visuals that support the copy and help convey what needs to be communicated.
3. Layout - The arrangement of these two elements on the web page and the way they are delivered to the audience.

Responsibility for the copy content lies with the individual departments - they know the subject best. Marketing and Communications will help them better express what they know to be most important to those seeking more information about that subject.

Departments will also have input into decisions about visual content, while Marketing and Communications will maintain final selection. Marketing and Communications depends on the knowledge the departments bring as to what will properly represent their program from a visual perspective. Photos must meet standards for quality, but every effort will be made to help the department represent their programs how they feel works best. Other visuals may include illustrations or buttons and must be approved and posted by Marketing and Communications.

The third area, page layout and arrangement of elements, will remain the responsibility of Marketing and Communications. Because the website is such an important marketing vehicle for the college, it must conform to the college's graphic standards and not present what Marketing and Communications might consider a disjointed brand to the public. Marketing and Communications works hard to ensure that the college brand (via the website, like any other communications) is presented consistently, no matter what department or service area is discussed.

Philosophy

• Remember that the key to web content is keeping it fresh, so be sure to continually review your pages for ways to update and enhance them.
• Think of what the audience wants to know about your area, not just what you want to tell them.
• Strive to get the most important information to your audience in the area immediately visible to the viewer without scrolling.

Navigation

• Keep it simple. Web pages should be easy to navigate and direct the visitor to the information as clearly and quickly as possible.
• If a long list is necessary, include anchor links at the top of the page to different headers. List questions at the top of a page of frequently asked questions so the audience will know what questions are being answered in the area below.
• Don't use "click here" to instruct a user where to click.
  • Make sure you link useful text. Picture the page with only the linked text and see if you can figure out the link's purpose. If you can't, consider changing the link or the wording.
• Hyperlinks to pages outside of https://www.gvltec.edu should always open in a new window so the user doesn't leave the site.
• Test your pages. Check each link to be sure it goes where you planned. Check each page in the major browsers: Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari.

Content

• Text should be in upper case and lower case, not in all caps.
• Headers should use proper html coding for heading levels, occurring in order (H1, H2, H3, etc.).
• Don't underline any text that's not a link.
• Avoid linking to "Under Construction" pages. Technically, web pages are always under construction. If you don't have information available, avoid posting a link.
• Be sure your dates make sense. For example, 01/02/01 means January 2, 2001, in the United States but February 1, 2001, in many European countries.
• Include your area code on the phone number, using this format: XXX-XXX-XXXX. Specify country if appropriate.
• Tables should be used sparingly as they may make meeting Section 508 compliance difficult and pose usability problems.
• Always remember copyright laws. Give credit to other authors where needed and investigate to make sure it is a legitimate and reputable source before linking to an outside site.

Attachments

• Avoid attachments whenever possible. Attachments refer to non-HTML formats including PDF, Word, PowerPoint documents, etc.
  • For occasions when information is intended specifically to be printed, as would be the case with a user manual or form, PDF may be an acceptable alternative.
  • If at all possible, put the information from non-html formats into the content of a web page, rather than attaching it as a document.

Within the CMS, Marketing and Communications can create redirects for pages within the site. All page URLs will begin with https://www.gvltec.edu. From this root, you can request what short/alias URL you’d like to use. For example, www.gvltec.edu/yournamehere/. URLs are case-sensitive and will be created with all lowercase letters, hyphens and no spaces.

Requests for particular short/alias URLs are considered on a first-come, first-served basis, so check to see if the URL you desire is already in use. Marketing and Communications reserves the right to refuse requests for URLs.

Things to remember when requesting a short/alias URL:

• Choose a URL that will make sense to your users and will be easy for them to remember.
• Use all lowercase letters for the name.
• Avoid underscores. Hyphens may be used between words for readability.
• Do not use spaces or non-alphabet symbols in your URL. (Numbers are okay to use.)
• Keep it short!

In general, photography will be provided by Marketing and Communications. Individual departments may influence the selection, but images must meet quality and communication standards set by Marketing and Communications. If you have images you want to be considered for inclusion, submit them to Marketing and Communications for review.

• Image Standards
  Images should be used at 100% of their size at 72 dpi for best loading time for the page.
• JPEG/JPG:
  The better format for posting photography online. JPEG images can contain millions of colors and can be compressed to your desired size.
• GIF:
  Generally used for non-photographic images of 256 colors or less, such as buttons, icons and arrows.

Videos linked from the Greenville Technical College website should maintain our quality standards, and the subject matter should be of interest to the audience. All videos must be closed captioned or a script provided.

The Greenville Technical College website does not support housing of videos due to the demands on capacity. However, Marketing and Communications may suggest housing videos that are relevant on our YouTube Channel, then linking from the website page to that location. Embedding videos within Greenville Technical College website pages will be used sparingly and will be done at the discretion of Marketing and Communications.

Areas of the college wishing to include a link to a video should contact Marketing and Communications for approval and posting.

Consistent with college and state policy on the appropriate use of college-owned equipment, the college's web page must not be used for commercial, non-mission-related purposes.

Implementation

In practice, this means that advertising space cannot be sold in any place on the website. "Advertising" refers to any situation in which the college, or one of its units, receives payment or in-kind gifts in exchange for a link or brand placement on a Greenville Technical College web page.

Guidelines for Linking and Presentation

While advertising cannot be sold, links to commercial vendors may be made in the following specific situations:

• Sponsorship recognition
  Within an area's web page, a logo or link can be displayed to acknowledge support of the area's mission-related activities through sponsorship. Such logos or links are deemed to be recognition of corporate or other external sponsorship; payment may not be accepted for that link or logo.

• Educational purposes
  The text link provides information for educational or other mission-related purposes, and the college has received no consideration for incorporating that link.

Such links should in no way imply endorsement of products or services offered by the external entity. Any descriptive text accompanying the link should be value-neutral. Acceptable language might include "For more information: [link]." Unacceptable language: "Check out this great website [link]." Such links should go to the home page of the entity's website and, wherever possible, links should not go to pages on which products or commercial services are offered for sale. The logo, text or graphic should not include any qualitative or comparative language or descriptions of the outside party's products, services, facilities or company, including but not limited to price information, inducement to purchase, endorsements, savings or value.

Particularly in cases where a group of external hyperlinks is included, the following language is recommended for inclusion: "Links to websites external to Greenville Technical College should not be considered endorsement of those websites or any information contained therein."

In all cases, the design of departmental or area pages that incorporate commercial links must be consistent with established graphic and placement standards for Greenville Technical College web pages.